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Article

28 Nov 2008

Author:
Jeffrey Rosen, The New York Times [USA]

Google’s Gatekeepers

Today the Web might seem like a free-speech panacea…But…the ultimate power to decide who has an opportunity to be heard, and what we may say, lies increasingly with…Internet companies like Google, Yahoo, AOL [part of Time Warner], Facebook and even eBay…[S]ome House Democrats and Republicans have introduced…the Global Online Freedom Act…Google and other leading Internet companies have sought modifications…arguing that, without the flexibility…they can’t protect the safety of local employees and that they may get kicked out of repressive countries…At the end of last month, the Internet companies and the advocacy groups announced the Global Network Initiative…Google’s claim on our trust is a fragile thing…[I]t’s hard to be a company whose mission is to give people all the information they want and to insist at the same time on deciding what information they get…[refers also to Verizon, Comcast, Microsoft]